[Advaita-l] Re: ONLY ONE PLACE

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

Stig Lundgren wrote:

>      It is obvious that the concept of karana sharira doesn´t
>play any important role in Shankara´s writings. Moreover, he do
>not refer anywhere to the post-Shankara doctrine according to
>which the soul enters the karana sharira in deep sleep (dreamless
>sleep).

However, it is clear from this very reference that he is at least aware of 
the descriptions of SarIra-traya (the three bodies) - sthUla (gross), 
sUkshma or linga (subtle) and kAraNa (causal) SarIra-s. And if we correlate 
this with mANDUkya, it is easy to see why the correlation of sthUla -> 
waking and sUkshma -> dreaming naturally leads to kAraNa -> deep sleep.

In the independent text called pancIkaraNa, which closely follows mANDUkya, 
there is a reference to kAraNa SarIra. Here, kAraNa SarIra = AtmAjnAna. It 
is called SarIra-dvaya-kAraNa (the cause of the two bodies, i.e. sthUla and 
sUkshma SarIra-s), and is correlated with deep sleep. I have argued in a 
journal publication that there is an extremely high probability, if not 
certainty, that pancIkaraNa is a genuine text of Sankara himself (Philosophy 
East and West [Univ. of Hawaii Press] Vol. 52, No. 1, Jan. 2002, pp. 1-35; 
see http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/philosophy_east_and_west/toc/pew52.1.html).

Regards,
Vidyasankar

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